There’s a mistake being played out in your organization when it comes to staffing innovation projects. You are likely staffing them with a bunch of “Spocks”, people who know a lot about the subject and have deep expertise. While this may look like a dream team, I can assure you that staffing a bunch of Spocks is not helpful and can be harmful. Continue reading →

John Stuart Mill lived at a time and in a place where the interaction of the various classes was limited, and when it occurred the conversation or interaction was one of disdain for the lower classes. Mill lived at a time of little change and great social unrest, but his goal was to create more progress. Today we live in a place where anyone can talk with anyone. Twitter, Facebook and other social media provide ever greater opportunities to exchange information and ideas with a wide range of people. Continue reading →

I was working with a client recently where there’s a real, palpable disconnect between the product managers and the executive team. The product managers believe more innovation is necessary – not simply more new products, but more expansive innovation. Continue reading →

Paul Hobcraft wrote a nice blog about the genesis of an idea in his article entitled Making Innovation Practice Spread. In his article he talks about two schools of thought. The first is that ideas originate from generating ideas – brainstorming and so forth. The other school suggests that ideas originate from adopting new practices. I think both are true, yet… Continue reading →

After a long day of innovation workshops, I ask the fateful question – does anyone have any questions about what we’ve done today? Inevitably one hand goes up. The question: can you tell our executives that we need more time to do innovation? Continue reading →

Time was, back when the railroads were built, that the military was basically the only management structure that was large, distributed and relatively effective. This structure was especially valuable when few people had much education, but could be taught relatively simple operations on a production line. Fast forward to today.. Continue reading →

As noted in previous posts, I’m returning to the idea that executives have a number of important roles to play when sponsoring innovation. Perhaps one of the most important roles is the work of creating a common innovation definition and language, and communicating the importance of innovation consistently and broadly.Continue reading →